Posts Tagged ‘
Static IP ’

Setting up a brand new system for your home shouldn’t be that difficult, and many companies are working hard to make the installation process as seamless as possible. After setting up your surveillance system there are a few small issues you may run into. CCTV System owners will mainly want to view their cameras over the internet. Viewing your system remotely means that you’ll have the opportunity to watch everything that’s happening on your system over an internet connection. This could be your phone, tablet, or even your computer.

Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will not allow you to purchase an IP address if the system is being set up in a residential home. This can cause a problem with remotely viewing your DVR because your IP address may change periodically. Sometimes this happens because there’s a power outage, or the modem has been power cycled. Either way, the IP address changes and that address which your were accessing your DVR with is no longer working.

Don’t Panic! There’s a great feature in our DVRs that will help you bypass this issue. Before we get into that, lets first discuss some of the differences between a static IP or a dynamic IP.

A Static IP is an IP address that is issued to you from a service provider, such as Comcast, which does not change over time. Your cable modem will always retain the same IP address any time it’s accessing the internet.

A Dynamic IP will periodically change before connecting you to the internet.

Before you install your surveillance system it is always important to find out if you have a dynamic IP address or you currently own a static IP address if you intend on viewing your DVR or NVR remotely. Using this network capability of the recording unit, you’ll be able to not only view your cameras, but also control the system remotely.

If you find out that you have a static IP address at the location of your digital recorder, you will be able to connect to your CCTV system remotely using the same IP address each time. If you end up finding out that you have a dynamic IP address, things can definitely end up becoming a little more complicated because you never know when the IP address you were assigned is going to be changed by your internet service provider.

Here’s the good news! There are many companies out there that offer a Dynamic DNS Service, or DDNS, that you may sign up for. Some companies charge a fee for their DDNS services and some are free. One of the more popular ones that you’ll come across on the Internet is DYN.com. Sign up for their website and create and account in order to gain access to these services. You will then be able to use a new address that is always up to date no matter what your IP address gets changed to.

When you set up an account with a DDNS service like DYN.com you can create a host name. For example, an address sort of like “myhomedvr.dyndns.org” just like the URLs or domain names that you use to access websites on the Internet. Then, you can associate the name that you created with the IP address that is currently assigned on the network your recorder is on. There are a couple different ways that you can set this up. One of the easy ways is if the router you are using on your network has the feature that supports DDNS. Most of the newer routers you’ll find in electronic stores will have this feature already built in. Just be sure to log into your router and check the settings to locate a DDNS setup screen or wizard. The location in the settings where you will find this tab will vary depending on the type of router you may have. Once you find the section with these settings, enter your DDNS account settings in order to log in. This will include your username, password, and the new domain name that you just registered with them. After doing so, your router will detect that your IP address has changed, and any time that it does it will send out a notification to the DDNS account about the change. It will tell the DDNS service what your new IP address is. Now that your new domain name is always pointing to your current IP address, it’ll allow you to use it to access a recorder remotely over the internet any time you want to log in and view your system. This will also make it easier to remember your address for connecting to the recorder. It’s a lot easier to remember a web address like “myhomedvr.dyndns.org” than a long string of numbers like an IP Address.

Here are some basic steps for setting up a free trial account on the DYNDNS website:

Open your browser and head on over to DYN.com

Choose a plan. Usually the first one will work for most people. That is the standard DNS service for remotely connecting to a device.

Next, You’ll create your domain name and fill our the rest of the account settings:

Once your domain name is created, you will be taken to the page where you put in your username and passwords for your DDNS account:

Here are some images of the settings on a DLINK and LINKSYS routers. This is to give you an example of what you’re looking for once you’re logged into your router. Some routers may look different but the settings are generally in places that are named similar to these:

One last thing that I should mention is that our DVRS also have a feature for DYNDNS Settings. You will have the ability to log into the DVR or NVR’s settings and insert all of the information for your DNYDNS account directly into the recorder.

When installing virtually any equipment that you need to access directly from a remote site you will often find that someone will ask “Do you have a static or Dynamic IP?” So what’s the difference? Why does it matter? And how would you change if you wanted to? Let’s explore the differences, and the reasons why they are chosen.

First and most importantly is a basic understanding of what an IP Address is and how they’re assigned. An IP Address is an Internet Protocol Address. If you’re using a typical residential set up, you probably have 2 IP Addresses. You will have 1 “LAN” or “Local Area Network” Address and 1 “WAN” or “Wide Area Network Address”. The WAN Address is the address that you would connect to from somewhere else (ie: at work, while traveling, etc…) This is the internet accessible address for your home gateway or router. Each device inside your home network will have a LAN Address that can only be accessed either by devices inside your home network –or- by setting up some type of “forwarding” through your router. In the most basic terms possible, an IP Address is the equivalent of a street address for devices (computers, modems, DVR/NVRs, cameras, etc…). Much like postal mail, if every package had the same address on it or no address at all, it would be impossible for the postman to know which package went to which house.

Below is an example of a typical home network that we can use as a point of reference for the remainder of this article.

Typically when you are asked “Static or dynamic”, the person asking is interested in the Internet side of the modem. If you say “Static” this means that you have (probably for a fee from your ISP) purchased a “Static” IP. Meaning it will always remain the same IP. If you have a “Dynamic” IP, then your modem “leases” an IP temporarily from your Internet Service Provider.

Dynamic IP’s will seem static at times depending on the length of the lease that your ISP uses. Some modems will change IP every time they lose power, others will hold on to the IP for a day or two of downtime before changing.

The problem with a Dynamic IP is if you need to access your home network, you need an address you can get to consistently. If that address changes, then you no longer have a means of reaching your home network unless you are there to retrieve the new one.

With a static IP, Things become much simpler, you will always reach your home network at the same address. Without any worry of it changing.

The most common solution to allow access through a Dynamic IP is to set up something commonly referred to as a Dynamic Domain Name Service. This is a service that uses a device inside your network (ex: the NVR in the picture above) to update a hostname whenever your WAN IP Changes to something new. For example, instead of trying to connect to http://4.2.2.2:88/ as an internet address you would use something like http://fake.techproddns.com:88/ and the NVR would periodically check to see if your IP has changed and then update the address accordingly.

This being said, most home networks are set up for Dynamic LAN addresses too. It is usually recommended that if you’re going to need to access a device remotely you would want to set it up on a unique Static LAN IP. This makes it easier to configure a port forward.

A common example set up for a network like what is pictured above would be (all addresses are made up):

Now in this example, if the WAN Address is static, it won’t ever change. If it is Dynamic, it could change without warning. Again you could use a Dynamic DNS service to keep track of those changes.

Also in the example above, the Router, NVR, and 3x IP Cameras would never change their LAN Address. However, the laptop and 2 computers could shift around addresses.

The reason we would set up the NVR and Cameras on static LAN addresses instead of dynamic is very straight forward. When you set up the port forward in the router to access the NVR you need to be able to give it a very specific destination. In this example you would want to forward any related ports from the router to 192.168.1.110. You also want the NVR to be able to reconnect to cameras in the event of a power outage, if they’re hopping around different network addresses, the NVR would be incapable of finding them and putting them back on the appropriate channels.

Port forwarding is a very simple process that has been complicated by the fact that different manufacturers place port forwarding options in different locations and sometimes under different names. Some call it “Port forwarding”, others call it a “pinhole”, and others refer to it as “NAT/Gaming”. If you’re looking for details on setting up a port forward it is always best to start with your router manufacturers guide. However, you can find a fairly large list of common routers with instructions on port forwarding at http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

In conclusion, you can use an Internet Service without caring if it’s static or dynamic up until you’re ready to connect from the outside world in. Once you get to that point your life will be simplified by either requesting a static IP –or- setting up some form of Dynamic DNS hostname. Once you overcome the hurdle of determining what address you’ll be using, and you set up the appropriate port forwards you should then be able to connect from anywhere in the world where you can get usable internet access.